True or False: Common Myths (and surprising facts) about the moon

Myth: The full moon makes people crazy

Since ancient times, full moons have been associated with odd or erratic behaviour, including sleepwalking, suicide, criminal acts and episodes of violence. These associations are not based in fact, however. Scientists can find no direct causal relationship between a full moon and human behaviour.

Myth: A rabbit dwells on the moon

Various folk traditions around the world, including those of Korea, Japan, Mesoamerica and China, recount tales of a rabbit that lives on the moon. This widespread folk narrative is thought to have arisen because of the outline of a rabbit visible on the moon.

Myth: Earth’s shadow causes the phases of the moon

The phases of the moon are caused by the moon’s position in relation to the sun. The moon is never in the shadow of Earth except during an eclipse.

Fact: The moon does not orbit Earth

Earth and the moon actually orbit each other, around a point between the two of them called the barycenter, which lies just inside Earth’s mantle—not at the Earth’s centre. This fact, coupled with the great size of the moon, has some astronomers, including the European Space Agency, arguing that Earth and moon are, in fact, a pair of planets.

Fact: The moon has moonquakes

The moon has four different kinds of quakes : 1) very deep quakes about 700 km below the surface, likely caused by Earth’s gravitational force being exerted on the moon; 2) quakes caused by meteor hits; 3) quakes caused by the expansion of the moon’s frigid crust; and, finally, 4) shallow surface quakes that can be surprisingly strong, measuring up to 5.5 on the Richter scale. What causes this last category of quake is unknown, but it’s clear that any future moon settlement will have to be quakeproof.

Fact: The moon is moving away from Earth

Earth's rotation supplies energy to the moon, speeding up the moon’s orbit. As the speed of the moon’s orbit around Earth accelerates, the moon moves further away from Earth by about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) per year.

Fact: A man’s ashes are on the moon

Eugene Shoemaker, one of the founders of the field of planetary science, died in a car accident in 1997. To honour a lifetime of groundbreaking work, including co-discovery of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, one ounce of Mr Shoemaker’s ashes was delivered to the moon’s surface by NASA’s Lunar Prospector science craft in 1999. Mr Shoemaker’s ashes are mixed with lunar dust.

Welcome to the Dawn of Commercial Space Flight

Comment

It’s stated that time move faster when they are away from gravitational body (i.e. away from earth) however, we say we age slower than those on earth, how does that work? Shouldn’t those on earth age slower since their time move slower?

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